Despite the growth of blogging and RSS, confusion persists regarding the reuse of user-generated content. While fair use, Creative Commons licenses, and social norms provide some guidance, there remains a gap in clarity for the paid reuse of such content. Additional insights can be found in linked previous posts.
Since the firestorm over RSS and copyright in January, I’ve been talking to a lot of people — those who publish blogs and mainstream media, those who aggregate online sources, those who worry over these things in the legal profession — about the strange place we find ourselves as an online community. There’s still a … Read more
Susan Mernit, a wonderful analyst of all things Web 2.0, writes, in a thoughtful post responsive to the flap over RSS and copyright: “But it seems to be what Palfrey has not yet addressed–which makes sense considering this company is so new–is that many of the players entering into the bundled space recognize they have … Read more
Mikel.org has a post that is right on — where Top10 Sources or anyone else makes a mistake in republishing an RSS feed that is subject to a (cc) license, it should fix that mistake fast. (It’s possible, of course, for someone to give license to do something beyond what the (cc) license says, so … Read more
Recently, adult publisher Perfect 10 sued Google for copyright infringement. (I posted a lightly redacted version of the complaint along with an early analysis of the lawsuit, here). Now, word is that Perfect 10 has asked the judge for a preliminary injunction against Google. Perfect 10 has also sued Amazon.com. These lawsuits, along with similar … Read more
How many hard-drives of reporters and bloggers this morning contain variants of the following, pre-written, anticipating: “Today, the United States Supreme Court handed down its long-awaited ruling in the Grokster case, holding that… This opinion marks a watershed in the epic battle over peer-to-peer file-sharing. Its effects on innovation will be far-reaching. Experts said they … Read more
Podcasting is coming your way. And it’s got a brewing copyright problem locked inside, as Adam Curry muses. It should be resolvable, but troubling if not resolved up front, much like the overall copyright problem with RSS. Possibly of interest to those curious about this question: Bonneville v. Marybeth Peters, the RIAA, et al.